50% do not know how much they have invested in their retirement savings

Half (50%) of respondents do not know how much they have invested in their retirement savings, according to research by Portus Consulting.

Its survey of 1,043 UK employees also found that 17% of respondents have built up three or more pension funds during their working lives.

The research also found:

11% of respondents are confident they can accurately estimate the value of all their retirement savings and investments, including their home.

39% of respondents believe they can roughly estimate the value of their total retirement fund.

20% of male respondents have retirement savings in three or more pension schemes, compared to 13% of female respondents.

27% of respondents aged between 45 and 54 years old have three or more pension funds.

7% of respondents report having no pension funds at all.

Steve Watson (pictured), commercial director at Portus Consulting, said: “Keeping track of retirement savings and investments is a challenge for most people but particularly difficult for employees with multiple funds.

“It is relatively encouraging that around half of all employees can accurately or at best roughly estimate how much they have saved or invested, but it is clear too many employees are in the dark about their retirement funds.

“There can be advantages in transferring pensions into one in terms of lower fees and better control, but in order to be able to make that judgement, people need to be fully informed about how much they have.”